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The climatic requirements of vegetables can be divided into two categories, cool-season vegetables and warm-season vegetables. Each of these categories have different planting times. Some vegetables can endure cool weather, which might even include a slight frost. Other vegetables need warm weather for germination to take occur and for the plants to produce a crop.
The two planting periods for lower elevations are early spring for warm-season vegetables and late summer to winter for cool-season vegetables. The planting period for higher elevations and is from spring through early summer. -
The cool-season vegetables are beets, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, onions, peas, potatoes, spinach, turnips and radishes. The best time to plant them would be in winter or early spring as they can tolerate cold soil and frost. Also, planting them at this time allows them to germinate and mature when the weather is cool, thus avoiding the summer heat which can be extremely hard on some plants.
Note: If you are in Southern Arizona, you can also plant these cool-season vegetables late in the summer season. They will then be able to mature and produce during the fall months when the temperatures are cooler. - Warm-season vegetables are the vegetables that cannot tolerate cold soil or frost conditions. They need the warm weather to germinate and produce fruit. These vegetables are sweet corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, pumpkins, melons, and squash.
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In the greater Phoenix area, some vegetables are easy to grow, such as hot and sweet peppers. If you are going to plant them from seed, they should be planted in early fall. If you are going to plant nursery stock, they can be planted in early March if available (some nurseries may not have them until later in the spring season). Eggplant can also be planted in March and does very well in Phoenix.
The best time to plant tomato plants is from May 10-June, 1. Cucumbers can be planted from May 15-June 15. If you would like to see a list of vegetable plants and when to plant them, once again the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, College of Agriculture & Life Sciences has an excellent list that shows vegetables and when to plant them (see Resources). This list shows plants and planting dates for regions 4-6. Phoenix is in region 5.
